Andrew Jackson is seen as one of the United State’s greatest presidents. He was the first “citizen-president” representing the common man. He believed strongly in preserving the union and in keeping too much power out of the hands of the wealthy. He was also the first President to truly embrace the powers of the presidency. Andrew Jackson was born either in North or South Carolina on March 15, 1767. His mother raised him by herself and then died of cholera when Jackson was 14. He grew against the background of the American Revolution. He lost both brothers in the war and was raised by two uncles. He received a fairly good education in his early years by private tutors. At 15, he chose to go back to school himself before becoming a lawyer in 1787.
About the video:
A biography of America’s seventh president, ANDREW JACKSON: GOOD, EVIL AND THE PRESIDENCY explores whether Americans should celebrate Jackson or apologize for him. Viewers discover that Jackson fought in the Revolutionary War when he was 13 years old and that he used the skills learned in battle to kill a man over a gambling debt; that Jackson led the American army to the most surprising victory in its history in the Battle of New Orleans, but that he also launched an unauthorized invasion of Florida; that Jackson was the first great champion of the common white man and owned more than a hundred black Americans; that Jackson dramatically expanded the United States and did so by brutally wresting vast regions of the south from Native Americans; that Jackson, in one of the boldest political strokes in history, founded the Democratic Party, yet was viewed by his enemies as an American Napoleon. The film concludes with the words of Jackson’s first biographer, James Parton: “Andrew Jackson was a patriot, and a traitor. He was the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. He was the most candid of men, and capable of the profoundest dissimulation. He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint.” Martin Sheen narrates.
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